survey: Mileage on your Original Steptronic

I have 107K miles on my 97 540iA and am considering bringing it to the dealer who told me just today that they will change the ATF (not a flush just a chnage). Doing an ATF flush may cause debris to get knocked into the running parts from the little nooks and crannies within the case, and possibly cause failure. I'm considering getting it done because I want to keep the car for another 100K miles or so. The dealer said it would cost $270 and they have had good results since they started doing this. Thoughts?

I have 107K miles on my 97 540iA and am considering bringing it to the dealer who told me just today that they will change the ATF (not a flush just a chnage). Doing an ATF flush may cause debris to get knocked into the running parts from the little nooks and crannies within the case, and possibly cause failure. I'm considering getting it done because I want to keep the car for another 100K miles or so. The dealer said it would cost $270 and they have had good results since they started doing this. Thoughts?

There is risk on either side of the decision. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Just changed the "lifetime" fluid, strainer, pan gasket and bolts at 102,000, and the car shifts wonderfully. I bought the car used at 71,000 miles and presume that the previous owner swallowed the "no change tranny fluid" line and never changed it.

By the way, the Bentley manual is wrong, or perhaps incomplete, on the right fluid to use. ZF's spare parts catalog, downloadable from the Web, recommends Esso LT 71141, $22 per liter at BavAuto.

One more thing: I'm new to the Club, and couldn't find any posts on possible class actions regarding the "no reverse" problem. Can anyone tell me if there have been any? Thanks!

By far, the most common cause of the reverse problem in BMW's is the failure of the D-G clutch drum. Specifically, the snap ring that retains the D or reverse clutch breaks out of the clutch drum resulting in an inability for the clutch pack to apply.

The good news is that there is hope in regards to a proper repair. The factory has released an updated part that so far appears to be a permanent fix for this problem.

In our testing and in conjunction with several hundred successful repairs at our facilities, the new part seems to be metallurgically superior in several ways.

We have found that there is an improved radius area as well as slightly thicker casting. In addition to this, the grove that retains the snap ring is also relocated further away from the edge of the drum.

With this issue addressed and attention to detail in several other areas of the ZF5HP19 unit, the transmission can be repaired to "better than new" condition by a competent transmission rebuilder / remanufacturer. In fact, when properly repaired, the ZF gearbox becomes quite robust and can provide an almost indefinite service life.

I had mine changed at about 80K as part of another repair that required pulling the engine. Never touched it again, sold the car with 208K on the odo and both the engine and trans were sound.
Draining the trans by taking off the pan is where it gets risky... any contamination can cost you an early failure. Also this misses all of the fluid in the torque converter which is a substantial amount. The other method (flush) which disconnects the line from the outlet of the cooler and connects it to a source of new fluid with a clear hose out of the cooler to the catch container. This allows the engine to pull in new fluid and push out the old fluid... you can monitor the color of the stuff exiting through the clear tubing, the change from old to new is usually quite dramatic. This gets 90% plus of the old fluid out. You still need to be very careful of contamination but that is a lot easier to do when all you do is disconnect one hose. This works for any car not just BMW's. Care must be taken to not let the trans pull in air. I will usually start stop the engine several times to maintain a good fluid level for the source. This method usually uses a liter or two more than capacity of the system to do a clean flush.
Chuck